


Faith and Rescue

by Kaerith



Series: Lovely Leskel [3]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff and Smut, Happy Ending, M/M, Mind Control, Rescue Missions, Romance, Swordfighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:20:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24564505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaerith/pseuds/Kaerith
Summary: When Eskel didn't return by the first snows Letho grew concerned. He wasn't usually the type of person to worry about another, but he hadn't ever loved anyone. Letho secured the castle, and dragged his unhappy horse into the inclement weather to make their way down to Kaedwen.Eskel and a mage had been seen on their way to Ban Ard. Letho was suspicious because there was no reason for a witcher to have to accompany even a sub-par magic user on the road to Ban Ard.(Sometimes on a rescue mission you have to fight the damsel in distress.)
Relationships: Eskel/Letho z Gulety | Letho of Gulet
Series: Lovely Leskel [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1689823
Comments: 15
Kudos: 52
Collections: Witcher Kinkmeme Collection





	Faith and Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt- [Eskel/Letho: fighting as ~~(maybe)~~ foreplay](https://thewitcherkinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/365.html?thread=17005#cmt17005). (Strikeout added by me, because prose gets purple at the end with these two, y'all.)

As nice as it was to have a home and someone to share it with, Eskel's long life of wandering and adventuring was a hard habit to quit. Letho told him to leave and be back by winter. He himself was more than happy to have a safe place to keep laying low, though he would definitely miss Eskel's company.

When Eskel didn't return by the first snows Letho grew concerned. He wasn't usually the type of person to worry about another, but he hadn't ever loved anyone. His concern and growing anxiety made it tough for him to sleep, and he ended up standing over the keep's gate though it was impossible to see too far through the snow.

Eskel had promised to be back before the snow and hadn't sent any word via mage or bird, so Letho feared that something drastic had happened to prevent his return.

Letho secured the castle, and dragged his unhappy horse into the inclement weather to make their way down to Kaedwen. He didn't need a horse and wouldn't have brought it along except he didn't want to leave it to starve at Kaer Morhen. It was convenient to use as a pack animal, though, which meant that Letho was relatively unencumbered as he broke through snow drifts that could be knee-deep. 

It was treacherous, but Letho knew he was less likely to die than the horse.

They both made it into town and the unnamed animal seemed quite happy to be sold off and rid of Letho for good. Letho's next move was to find where Eskel had been.

He followed the Gwenllech south like Eskel had been planning. No one in the small villages scattered on the river bank had seen the scarred Wolf making his way back north. When Letho reached the outskirts of Ard Carraigh he saw something that intrigued him: it was Scorpion, Eskel's beloved Kaedweni stallion, in a paddock with three other horses. As a notorious assassin Letho didn't want to make a scene, so he was forced to find a hiding spot to watch for whatever unfortunate person was going to claim the stolen horse.

Letho ended up terrifying two children. The older boy stubbornly insisted that the stallion belonged to them while the girl just cried, and Letho kept their skinny arms in firm holds as they led him to their parents.

The parents were traveling merchants, and Letho was surprised and thankful that they also seemed to be intelligent. They were concerned to see their children in the custody of a man as fearsome as Leatho, but he released the kids as soon as the adults proved that they weren't bigots ready to scream for the militia and accuse him of kidnapping. The woman, in fact, seemed to be sympathetic when Letho said that their horse belonged to his good friend. "We did buy him from a mage who had a witcher with him," she said. "Down south, maybe two, three weeks ago? I told you the price was suspicious," she said to her husband, who just grunted around the stem of his pipe. "The mage let the stallion go for much too little coin."

"The horse belonged to the witcher," Letho said. "Why was the mage selling it?" 

"No clue. The witcher never said a word. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but if the horse was his he should have spoken up to end the trade or haggle the price."

They conversed about how the traders planned on staying at home until spring, and the woman sold Scorpion to Letho for an absurdly low price that he could easily pay with the amount of coin he had brought with him. (In the case that a ransom would be involved in recovering Eskel. Of course, Letho would kill whoever had laid hands on his Wolf and take the money back, but sometimes giving actual money made the process quicker.) He even gave them more coin when they offered to board the horse until he returned for it.

Letho went south on the wide road that connected Kaedwen's capital city to Ban Gleán. He was worried that the mage had some sort of hold on Eskel; he would have never allowed Scorpion to leave his side unless he was coerced or afraid that the horse would come to harm wherever he was heading.

He didn't have to go all the way to the Pontar because he got another clue in the first town he encountered after leaving the White Forest. Eskel and the mage had been seen in Shaerrawedd on their way to Ban Ard. Letho's suspicion of the mage only deepened, because there was no reason for a witcher to have to accompany even a sub-par magic user on the road to Ban Ard. Even if a sorcerer or mage couldn't portal to the sorcery school there, any monsters along the way on that busy route should have been exterminated back in spring. 

Letho turned east. He generally preferred traveling on foot. He was strong and broad enough to carry his own provisions, and was more agile than most would suspect. He also had stamina to rival the legendary Geralt of Rivia's and could walk for up to two full days without rest if he needed to. Horses required coin and attention and couldn't cover the rough ground Letho himself had no problems with. Not to mention they were menaces who tended to kick and bite and farted way more often than Letho thought any animal should. He made better time traveling on the roads than he had expected after over a year of soft living.

On his twelfth day searching for the missing witcher Letho began to see the signs of travelers not too far ahead of him. Horse manure and wheel tracks meant that someone was headed to Ban Ard with a wagon, and if that was the mage Letho was after it would solve the mystery of why he would hire a guard. He sped up his pace, and by noon he came across where the wagon had stopped for a while. There were boot prints of similar size and stride as Eskel's, and a splash of piss on the bracken off the road smelled like his. It wasn't warm but it hadn't dried, so Letho knew he would be catching up very soon. He made sure that his weapons were still in good condition and at hand, and did his usual series of stretches because he didn't know what he was going encounter.

His preparations turned out to be a good choice because the Eskel he caught up to regarded him with suspicion and a lack of recognition. The mage was driving the wagon and had the same air of superiority of all noble-born magic users Letho had ever encountered. "Another one?" The mage said, more intrigued than afraid. "Well, that would bring me even more recognition."

A crossbow bolt was embedded in the mage's hand before he had even brought it up to direct whatever spell he had planned. The mage screamed and Eskel drew his sword.

Letho didn't expect any intelligent response to an interrogation from the mage as he fussed over his impaled hand, so he tried to break through whatever spell held Eskel's mind captive. "Wolf," he said, hooking his bow back on his back and then holding his palms out non-threateningly. "Recognize me?" 

Eskel didn't bother talking, just advanced. Letho turned and ran toward a flat stony area where the ruins of a large building remained. The place had burnt down decades ago, and the walls were crumbling without a roof or support beams. It would be a better place for a fight with a larger cleared space and enough distance that the mage wouldn't be able to intervene easily.

"Eskel." Letho said his name again, as gently as he dared once the Wolf had caught up to him. If Eskel heard his name it didn't matter, because he was raising his sword and coming fast at Letho with an attack.

Letho took the first chop on his left gauntlet and then fumbled his own sword out. He didn't want to fight, but he wouldn't let Eskel cut him down so that when he finally saw Letho for who he really was Letho wasn't just a corpse on the ground.

His usual tactics were to subdue and disarm a human opponent using his strength, but he couldn't trust that would work with another witcher. Letho knew that Eskel could more than match his skill with a sword. He needed to disarm him fast, and then grapple. He might have to even choke Eskel to get him to stop.

Eskel's glare was like a bolt of lightning; the lack of recognition of anything other than a mere living obstacle felt like it cut through Letho's body. Even when he was just "that Viper" Geralt had invited to Kaer Morhen, Eskel had at least had interest in his expression when he looked at him.

The Wolf was quicker on his feet and more deft with his sword that Letho could ever be. He would thrust toward Letho, dance away when he was parried, and then his blade was attacking from another angle before he could lose the advantage. Letho would usually use a sign when at a disadvantage like this, but Eskel was much better at magic than he.

Letho blocked and parried, his partner too fast for him to riposte or counterattack. He finally just let the sword slash him and grabbed Eskel's sword arm and pulled the Wolf to him. Letho tossed both their swords away and Eskel broke his hold and stepped back, coiled and ready to spring back into an attack. The larger witcher barreled into him first, though, knocking him to the ground and struggled to get his arms in a lock. "Eskel, fuck, come on!" The man still fought him and slipped away. Letho grabbed him by the foot as Eskel rolled to get the space to stand and then slammed the Wolf into the ground. 

Eskel's mind was knife-sharp with his focus on the enemy. Whoever this person was, he had attacked his Master unprovoked. The man knew his name and said it like it was supposed to change something, but Eskel just sneered and kicked him in the jaw. It was a witcher-strength boot to the face and his opponent was too rattled to keep Eskel from popping up back onto his feet. He cast an Aard and it knocked the large man into the bricks of a ruined wall and he crashed through. Eskel followed over the rubble and saw him laid out through the clouds of dust. He pulled out a knife to finish the man off, but the bandit/assassin jumped up and ran at him, planting a boot on Eskel's stomach and flipping away. Eskel's feet flew out from under him and he skidded backwards, his knife sparking against the rough stone before it was yanked away by the friction.

Getting to his feet, Eskel swore as his opponent approached more slowly. The unarmed attack was blocked, but Eskel could barely keep the attacker from pushing him down with his extraordinary weight and strength. With his hands wrapped around the large man's wrists Eskel couldn't use a sign again to break their clutch, so he stopped pushing back and used the man's weight to over balance him as Eskel freed a foot to kick him in the balls.

Letho went down with a grunt, and the Wolf kicked him over until he was flat on his back and took a firm grip at the base of the Viper's neck and lifted a hand to cast a sign to finish him off.

"Use your fucking nose, asshole!" Letho gritted out, and Eskel seemed to inhale on instinct. Letho saw his pupils go wide as his grip loosened, and Letho pulled him down and rolled them so that his back was to the mage, hiding Eskel's abrupt lack of struggle.

"Letho?" Eskel's eyes locked onto Letho's face and he was confused.

"Pretend to kill me then get close and take out that bastard."

Eskel felt knocked out of reality as he recognized Letho's smell. The man he was grappling with was large but didn't look or sound anything like his lover. He followed the man's instructions as he tried to figure what was going on.

"Mage," the man who must be Letho grunted, with a barely perceptible twitch to Eskel's right to indicate the direction of the road. Their attacks fell into the rhythm of their practice fighting, which was almost as familiar as the scent of Letho's sweat. Eskel kicked the man in the shin while he grabbed his opponent's face, but it was done at a fraction of the strength he would use if he was truly fighting for his life. Pushing the other man's head back gave him the opportunity to see the mage walking towards them: a smug fuckwad in fancy robes whom Eskel barely recognized and whose hand was wrapped and cradled carefully. Eskel lifted his own hand and feigned that he was making an offensive sign, but he cast Quen instead. Letho went limp and played possum.

The mage's control on his mind was thrown off by the spell and Eskel could see that it was indeed Letho that he had been fighting. The mage seemed to think that the witcher was dead, which proved he was a fool. He also didn't realize his enchantment was broken. "Come, pet. Get your sword and we'll move."

Eskel retrieved his sword and slotted it into its sheath, but he drew a dagger out of a hidden pocket right after. The mage had his back turned as he began to return to the cart and it was an easy thing to leap at him and slice his neck. "Not your fucking pet," he sneered, letting the dying man drop. He put the knife through his ribs and into the mage's heart as well and stood there watching until he was dead.

He could hear Letho get to his feet. Eskel didn't move, just stood over the body as he caught his breath and tried to figure out what had been going on. Letho approached him without any hesitation. "So," he said, "Did whoever I look like have hair?"

Eskel was too shaken to laugh but he found the question funny. "Couldn't tell what was under the helmet. Looked like one of those witch hunter assholes, just a really fucking huge one."

Letho put a large hand on his arm and Eskel turned to face him. There was a long slash bleeding on his left arm, and a lot of minor abrasions and darkening bruises. He wasn't standing at his full height, hunched over a bit, and Eskel winced. "Sorry for the dick move," he offered but Letho waved his apology away.

Eskel didn't sense any injuries on himself. He stepped carefully against Letho and his Viper held him close. "Thanks. What happened?"

"Got magicked by that dandy of a mage. Took almost two weeks for me to track you down."

"Where are we now?"

"Off the Liksela River west of Ban Ard. If he had actually hired you to guard the wagon he wouldn't have needed to enchant you or sell your horse."

"What happened to Scorpion?" Eskel asked, his concern fringing on panic as he tried to remember but couldn't.

"I recognized it in Ard Carraigh. Bought it back. The merchants who traded for it are taking care of him until we return." Letho was pleased to see Eskel's shoulders drop with relief. "We were lucky they were good people. The mage on the other hand... he was probably going to show you off to other magic fuckers as proof of some mind control spell he created."

"His fucking pet," Eskel spat. "Creep." Eskel ran a finger along the gash on his lover's arm. "All I got on you was one cut?"

Letho pulled him closer and nestled Eskel's face into his neck. "And you crushed all my favorite bits. Don't get proud about it; I took the cut so that I could disarm you. Was hoping that idiot didn't fuck with your sense of smell and you would figure things out."

Eskel let himself enjoy being held by his Viper. "He had put up an escort contract in Asheberg to take him to Ban Gleán. I thought it was an easy job that would earn some extra money going to where I was headed anyway. I can't recall anything after crossing the border from Aedirn."

"Fucker tried to magic me, too."

"That earned him the bloody hand?" Eskel pulled back and looked around for their scattered weaponry. Letho went after Eskel's first dagger while the Wolf retrieved Letho's sword.

"Don't feel too bad. I knew you were under a spell before he tried to hit me with one. He must have played nice for a day or two before he blindsided you." They exchanged blades and Eskel slung the dead man over his shoulder before they walked back to the wagon. The mage had set the brake, so at least the horse hadn't tried to wander off. "Let's see if there's anything worth selling." Letho picked through the tangle of objects, mostly magical and alchemical instruments and esoterica. Not much they could sell to a random tinkerer or pawnbroker, but they might be worth taking to a smith for dismantling.

"I'm driving," Letho said, settling himself on the bench seat. Eskel dropped the mage's corpse in the wagon and took a position on the road next to the wagon as the horse began to move. "Tell me about the spell."

"I knew I was a witcher but thought that my purpose was to protect him. If I tried to think about anything other than the present moment those thoughts weren't there. It was like I had no past, but it didn't matter anyway. Seems that your stench was strong enough to spark the memory of you even through the spell," Eskel teased. Not having an identity hadn't bothered him at the time, but looking back while remembering himself now made the experience terrifying. He had basically been just one of those strange automatons he had seen at the Novigrad market: something wound with a spring and released as it carried out specifically engineered movements.

"You have commented on liking my 'stench' before and often," Letho said, with one of those small smiles that Eskel still treasured even though they came much more often since they had been alone. He took one of his hands off the reins and extended it toward his lover. Eskel took it and brushed his cheek against the knuckles not protected by a glove. His own fingers were stained with the mage's blood.

"Don't let anything like that happen again," Letho rumbled quietly. He gently pulled his hand back and turned his face to the road ahead. "I didn't like the way you looked at me when you didn't know me." 

That understatement felt like a stab to Eskel's heart and he wished he could murder that mage again. Eskel knew how most of the world saw Letho: a brute without any scruples and with no emotional ties to anyone or anything. While bespelled Eskel hadn't even seen Letho's true intimidating countenance with his scars and the keen intelligence in his eyes and he had definitely been wary and considered him a threat to be killed swiftly and without any regret. It would have been heartbreaking for the other witcher to have the only person who gazed at him with fondness and acceptance to have been turned against him.

Eskel immediately wanted nothing more than to stop the wagon and show Letho his devotion with some kisses and a satisfying orgasm, but the Wolf doubted Letho would be "up" to it for at least a handful of hours with the underhanded tactics Eskel had used against him.

"Beloved," he said, instead, a bit shy but wholeheartedly determined to at least try to mend some of the damage with words. "That bastard of a mage had to take away every personal detail of my life to make me forget about you. And even then my body recognized you and broke some of the spell's power over my mind. You remained in my heart, a ceaseless longing for me to be somewhere in the north though I had no idea of where or why. The knowledge of you is so deep in my bones and spirit that no spell could ever tear out those roots."

Letho had become so enraptured with his partner's words that his attention was only pulled away when the wagon wheels started rolling over the rough ground to the side of the road as the horse took advantage and headed for a tempting patch of green. He reined the animal back to the road and composed his own confession.

"I never thought that you failed to return by your own choice. Once the snow came I knew I had to track you down. I didn't know if you were in danger but I figured whatever situation keeping you away meant that you could use my assistance. I would have followed your Path into Temeria if it led there."

"I am thankful it didn't." Eskel didn't want "The Kingslayer" to risk being recognized where even the common folk knew his description and held a grudge. "And I am happy to hold your faith and to have been rescued."

After a period of thoughtful silence Letho said, "We will be going to that mage school when we arrive in Ban Ard. Then we should leave quickly after."

* * *

The apprentice was wide-eyed and nervous as he led the two witchers to the dining hall. All of the Academy's esteemed sorcerers' and mages' conversations stopped as the doors opened.

"V-v-visitors for m-my Lord Ch-chancellor." Having the eyes of so many Wise Ones as he interrupted their meal made him stutter and his knees feel like jelly.

"Who dares interrupt?!" The High Chancellor shouted before the two witchers stepped forward into the room. The large one projected a menacing air of rage while the shorter one was no less frightening with his grotesque facial scars and bloodied hands as he slung a body from his shoulder onto the middle of the high table where it sprawled across the serving platters still full of food.

"Eskel, School of the Wolf. The witchers of Kaer Morhen have had a treaty of non-interference with your institution for five hundred years. This mage, whom I presume had some sort of connection to you, contracted me to escort him from Aedirn. He tried to enchant me into his slave and seemed to have the intention of bringing me here to show off."

The faces of the chancellors and deans at the high table were a spectrum of morbid interest, fear, and disgust. In the silence of the great hall some gagging noises could be heard. Eskel ignored the sounds with intense stoicism, but his burlier companion had a bowel-weakening smirk of disdain at the magic users' stunned horror.

Eskel leveled a bloody finger at the High Chancellor then swept it to his right and then to his left making eye contact with the twenty mages at the table. "Every witcher will be warned. If a similar act is attempted again neither you nor your brethren will be safe. I recommend you ensure your entire community understands that we are not to be messed with."

"Of course, Master Witcher," the High Chancellor said, standing and giving the witchers the extreme courtesy of a bow. "I do not know this man, but we shall take our responsibility in preventing such a grievous insult from happening again. I apologize for your inconvenience and thank you for your swift justice."

The witcher nodded and then turned to stalk out with the other, even more fearsome looking one, following silently.

* * *

They had sold the horse, wagon, and its contents within two hours after their show at the academy and were out of Ban Ard traveling northwest by late evening, wanting to get a good distance away. Close to dawn but with the moon still providing the only light, they had found a place to rest by the Liksela and Eskel finally thoroughly washed the mage's blood off of his hands and Letho took the opportunity to wash off his "stench" by stripping down entirely and washing himself in the river. He was pleased when Eskel's gaze and fingers couldn't stay away and soon his lover was re-familiarizing himself with Letho's skin after too many months apart.

"I missed you," Eskel said between kisses. As well as the most beloved traits of his Viper, he had found himself missing the smallest, strangest things like the little notch of a scar on his earlobe and how he was so careful handling books and often gave the cover of a favorite a little pat after setting it down.

Letho grabbed Eskel's buttocks and pulled him up, his partner wrapping his legs around Letho's body as his arms stayed around Letho's neck. He braced an arm under his Wolf's bottom so he could use his other one to thread his fingers through Eskel's thick dark hair. It was shorter, so Eskel must have had it shorn close to his scalp in the warmer months.

"Have I told you how attractive your arms and shoulders are?"

"Not for the past six and a half months," Letho said. "In fact, I'm pretty sure you've only complained about how I smelled."

"It was a joke!" Eskel protested, though they both knew Letho understood that. "What kind of apology do I need to make?"

Letho let him drop onto his feet. "Well, you could begin by getting on your knees and removing your shirt," he said, his yellow-green eyes heating up as he watched Eskel follow his instructions. "Then take off your belt," Eskel looked a bit uncertain at that and Letho stroked his chin. "We'll never do anything like that. I promise your penance will be something we both will fully enjoy." Comforted, Eskel undid his belt and removed it. "Open up your trousers and shove them down." 

Eskel was soon sitting with his pants bunched around his thighs as Letho examined him and saw that his beloved's body was exactly as he remembered it with no new scars--not that any amount of scarring would detract from Eskel's beauty in his eyes. There weren't any signs that he had gone hungry out on the Path, either. His prick was standing up straight from the nest of dark hair between his thighs.

"How long has it been since you've fucked anyone?" Letho was curious but not possessive. He had given his partner his blessing to find female company when he needed it.

"I haven't been with anyone since you," Eskel confessed. "No one out there could ever to compare to who was waiting for me at home. Letho, please let me touch you."

"Haven't even apologised yet," Letho said with a teasing grin and a slow shake of his head.

Eskel bit his lip. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry if my words offended you. They were not truly meant."

Letho was too tantalized to draw the foreplay out any longer. He gave his cock a few rough strokes and watched Eskel's gaze fixate on his motions. He removed his hand and stepped forward, offering himself to Eskel but not demanding anything in particular.

Eskel met his eyes with his own, the pupils dilated with affection and arousal, as he craned his neck to give the side of Letho's shaft a damp, sucking kiss. He put a hand up on one of the Viper's thighs and then continued to tease him with licks and gentle pressure of his teeth. Letho groaned and his hands kept reaching out despite his intention to keep them loose at his sides, so he ended up his lacing his fingers together behind his own neck for lack of any other safe place to grip.

When Eskel's patience ran out he closed his lips over the shaft and pushed up to take all he could, sucking his lover's cock strongly and smoothing the bottom of it with his tongue. Letho withdrew enough so that he could also use his hand, and grunted as he came. Eskel let some come spurt into his mouth but then pulled off and let the rest land on the ground and one of his knees.

Eskel was surprised that Letho had allowed himself to release so quickly but soon realized that the Viper had other plans. After a kiss and a deep hum of grateful pleasure, Letho turned away to retrieve something from his pile of equipment. He flashed Eskel a glimpse of a familiar flask of the oil they preferred to use for their lovemaking before he returned to kneel naked in front of Eskel.

"I've missed you," Letho rumbled again, with an uncharacteristically shy tilt of his head. "Would you give me the pleasure of fucking me?"

Eskel held the familiar, beloved face in his hands. "Of course, my dearest. I would love to give both of us the pleasure."

Letho had asked Eskel to fuck him like this less than a dozen times during their relationship. He enjoyed it, but he tended to get a bit teary and emotional. His Wolf had never made him feel weak, though; Letho knew that all of his insecurities about doing this were from society and his own views of his body. He knew he was not a handsome man, and even less attractive when he cried. Fortunately, allowing Eskel deep into his body was the only thing that made Letho cry, and Eskel never seemed to mind.

Eskel watched the other witcher turn around and rest his head on his hands in the grass, leaving his ass propped up on his folded legs. He had been afraid he had hurt Letho the first few times they had done things this way, but Eskel now understood that all of his reactions were from pleasure and his voluntary vulnerability. His partner was such a romantic soul; Eskel liked to marvel at the dichotomy of Letho's brutish appearance and his secret passion for an emotional connection and relationship. He would never, ever say anything out loud, but Eskel could imagine him as the heroine of one of Dandelion's love ballads: looking longingly out a window and sighing as he wished to find his true love. Letho would accuse Eskel of mocking him, but Eskel really considered it sweet.

Maybe Eskel was just as much of a love-sick fool. He decided to admit his thoughts as he carefully prepared Letho. "I encountered Dandelion just after Midsummer. He said I often looked 'besotted' and wondered who I had fallen in love with. I probably looked besotted most of the time I was alone, because you were always on my mind."

Letho kept his face hidden as Eskel opened him with his fingers. His beloved Wolf touched him with gentleness that made his chest burn inside like a forge. Letho hadn't been made for gentleness; he was all hard muscle and rough edges, every physical feature and personality trait thick and blunt. In intimate moments like these Eskel treated Letho like he was a fragile wine glass instead of a cast iron skillet. It was also only in moments like these when Letho sometimes _felt_ as fragile as blown glass, like he could be as easily bruised as an overripe fruit.

"Can I see your face as we make love?" Eskel said. The lump of emotion in Letho's throat threatened the integrity of his voice, so Letho shook his head. He didn't want to ruin the moment by having to keep his teary eyes and ruddy face under control.

Eskel smoothed his hands over Letho's shoulders and back. His Viper was curled up and hard as a boulder except for the softened and hot hole between his buttocks. Eskel had no doubt that Letho's facial expression also gave the lie to facade of invulnerablility, and longed to see his lover's eyes and mouth display his pleasure, but would allow his beloved his perceived dignity of hiding.

He parted Letho's cheeks with his hands and thrust his cock in slowly. He could vaguely hear Letho stutter out a low moan of satisfaction, but his senses were focused on the way the larger witcher's body welcomed his. Eskel swept his callused palms over Letho's skin with its occasional bumpy scar as he pushed himself in all the way. He still didn't feel like they were physically close enough, so he pressed his chest against Letho's back and wrapped his arms around the barrel of a chest. "I love you," he needed to remind him. Despite all the other sensory messages confirming Letho's enjoyment, Eskel still felt a frission of uncertainty when his lover hid his face.

"Missed you so much," Letho replied, his voice tight with emotion but not pain.

Already, Eskel's pace was picking up. "Am I doing good? Tell me what you need, because I don't think I can hold myself back much longer."

Letho could only grunt something he hoped conveyed his satisfaction. He was uncurling himself, sliding his knees farther back and arching his back to try direct Eskel's dick to stimulate that particular place inside of himself that made the glory of this act rise into a crescendo. When Eskel climaxed, Letho felt as if their heartbeats pulsed together for a brief moment. That moment felt like all the beauty and acceptance and companionship of their past couple years together had been distilled into a single drop of perfection.

He had lifted his head as he had strained for Eskel to reach his prostate, but Eskel hadn't tried to get a glimpse of his face. Letho's Wolf had settled his head on Letho's back again and let him return to his senses. It was one of the many small ways that Eskel proved his worthiness as a partner. Eskel eventually rolled them to their sides and kept his arms wrapped around Letho.

"Can I give you a hand, my heart?"

Letho nodded and pulled his companion's hand around and guided it to his dick. Eskel propped himself on his other elbow to get a good grip and jerked Letho off in the exact way the other witcher needed it: fast and tight. The tears still in Letho's eyes blinked away in time for him to see his seed shoot into the grass where it reflected the moonlight.

Eskel pressed kisses to his shoulder. "You just convinced me to retire," he said. "Now that I properly remember what I left here in the Blue Mountains, I don't think I ever want to leave you again."

Letho lumbered to his feet slowly, like a bear emerging from his winter cave. "You ain't old enough. Plus, witchers don't retire." He waded into the river and washed his face first.

"How about thirty years of you and me splitting our time between home and the east? We can travel the wilderness together and keep our hand in by killing chorts and fiends. Avoid civilization until Northern politics change. Who will deny us our retirement after we have both put in a hundred years or so to living on the Path?"

"And this 'retirement' of spending at least two more centuries with me is what you want?"

"Letho," Eskel said, joining him in the hip-deep water and hugging him from behind, "It would be the happiest life I have ever been able to imagine for myself."

The Viper finally turned around to meet his lover's eyes. He brought a hand up to tilt Eskel's face so that he was bathed in moonbeams. "How did I get so fucking lucky to earn you?"

"I suppose we can count you having to leave safety to track me down after I let a dilettante of a mage enslave me as 'earning' me, if you would like. Though I wouldn't blame you if you decided I wasn't worth the-"

"I was stupid enough to think that the emperor of Nilfgaard would honor a vague agreement if I assassinated his rivals as he demanded. Everyone trusts the wrong people sometimes."

Eskel frowned. "That's hardly a fair comparison! You were-"

This time Letho interrupted him with a kiss. "Argue later. We should get back on the road to get your horse and home before the blizzards set in." Letho turned away to splash some more water over himself.

Eskel couldn't stop himself from smiling so widely that he probably looked dim-witted. He was certainly and incurably besotted. His man had not only tracked him down and intentionally lost a fight to save him, but had also rescued Eskel's prized stallion despite all of the adorable jealousy he felt for the animal. And yet Letho thought that he had "earned" _him?_

But even better than that was that they were going home. Together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to: [Dravenxiv](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dravenxiv/profile) whose [gif set of Eskel & Letho fighting](https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/504078) was part of the prompt and made the fight scene I wrote so much better.
> 
> No thanks to: Scorpion. Eskel must have left with Scorpion and then I forgot about him until I started writing their tender lovemaking scene and then I had to cockblock all of us to figure out his whole journey before I could go back to writing smut. So no thanks for having a canonical horse with a name, Eskel. Also, there is no scale on either of the maps I like to use, so time and distance is entirely random.
> 
> Also, hmu if anyone thinks of a better name for this. Concrit always welcome.


End file.
